Today we got a huge Metal spectrum, from the relaxing side to the most extreme and heaviest music. Of course we are quite accustomed to all kind of weird and sometimes no so graceful mixes, from people trying to play Black Metal with banjos and Brutal and “danceable” Death Metal!! Of course we respect all to want to experiment with their favorite styles… But there are some bands that really get new sounds from the existent ones. And among those bands underline the sound of ANACHRONAEON. Their music is impressively coherent and great!! So we contact the mastermind of the band Mr. Patrik Carlsson to know what is in their alien minds…

BB: First I would like to thank you for concede us this interview, and congratulations for your great work in “As the last human spot in me dies”. Can you tell us about your band’s beginnings?

Patrik: Thanx man. It all started when me and Andreas (drums) played together in a band called Eternally Devoured which included some other people. When the band was put on ice, which actually was a slow death of it, me and Andreas decided that we wanted to do something on our own. The result was the improvised, self titled thrash-cd “Human Failure”, which was written and recorded in about twelve rehearsals. Since then, me and Andreas have sticked together. Later on, we changed the bandname to “Anachronaeon”.

BB: What is Anachronaeon doing nowadays?

Patrik: We are actually recording a new cd. So far we have recorded approximately three out of seven songs. It’s gonna kick ass! It has that pure, aggressive sound that we’ve always wanted, but never before achieved. We are not totally happy with the outcome of the sound on “As the last human spot in me dies”, because we rushed the recordings too much. It probably depended on the fact that there were too many people involved, who all wanted results fast. Now that only me and Andreas are left in the band (as we think works best), we feel that we can work on our own terms with less compromises.

The new cd is about aliens and conspiracy-theories. All the lyrics are tied around a story, sort of like a movie-manuscript. We think we will be done by December 2005, but maybe we are faster. Who knows. We do know that we will not rush things this time. I call also reveal that this will be our most progressive release ever, though not at the expence of the flow.

BB: I have read some very positive reviews of your album. Are you glad with the final results of “As the last human spot in me dies”?

Patrik: I am proud of every release that we are behind. The overall production could have been done much better in my opinion. Also, I am not 100 % satisfied with the clean vocals, but I was fighting time. Since I am allergic I had to finish the songparts before spring came along. When spring comes to Sweden, all I do is sneeze, my eyes itch and my voice totally changes. So I had to be fast.

 Some parts I wish I woudn’t have rushed through. But seen to the performance of the instruments and the songwriting I am very proud of it. It feels like a really honest recording. Andreas was in really good shape then too. He took every drumtrack in one take.

BB: Why you decide to change the name from Human Failure to Anachronaeon? By the way, what means the name Anachronaeon?

Patrik: When I started to write on what would become “Tales from a hollow eternity”, and we started to take in new people into the band, we changed our bandname to “Anachronaeon”. The reason for the change was that we found a German punk(or something)band who also went by the name “Human Failure”. To avoid any arguments we decided to take ourselves a new bandname.

Anachronaeon is a combination of the words “anachronism” and “aeon”. Something like “the era that there’s something wrong with”. Study the lyrics for “Anachronaeon (Where people live in dreams) from the “As the last human spot in me dies”-cd and you will understand.

BB: Your music is a great mixture of styles, but if you must categorize it, how would you classify it?

Patrik: I would classify it as good music. *laughter* I don’t like to classify it. It pisses people off whatever I would call it. Melodic progressive metal with elements of extreme metal, maybe?

BB: …Can you mention some bands that have influenced the sound of Anachronaeon?

Patrik: Sure. Evergrey, Emperor, Symphony X, Simon and Garfunkel, Dimmu Borgir and about a thousand more...

BB: Your lyrics talks about various topics… What are your sources of inspiration? What is the main concept behind these lyrics?

Patrik: I believe that just by studying mankind, and the world, you’ll get enough material to last a lifetime. I believe that I am a sucker for poetic suffering. I write about how I feel, and sometimes I write about other peoples problems. Sometimes I am inspired by a damn good movie. Sometimes the music itself wakes feelings, or gives me a theme to write around.

For the coming cd I wrote the story disposition long before I started to work on the music, but when I write the lyrics in detail I need the music to capture the moment.

BB: How was the composition process of “As the last human spot in me dies”?

Patrik: I wrote most of the basic structures of the songs alone. Then I presented them to the band, which modyfied some parts and arrangements. I seldom tell Andreas what to play. Most of the time he gets a good feeling about what would sound best to a particular riff and melody.

Marcus Wadstein, who’s now left the band, contributed with some riffs and solos.

BB: Why you decide to record the drumming live?

Patrik: Since we did not record “As the last human spot in me dies” to a metronome-click it would be too tricky to retake drum-mistakes. Therefor we decided that the best thing would be if Andreas nailed each song in one take.

BB: The album art is pretty good… What’s the concept behind the artwork?

Patrik: Thanx! The main concept is to reflect the music on the cd. The frontcover represents a man who looks himself in the mirror. He sees himself through the mistakes he’s made along his life. I guess you could say that the mirror reflects his soul, which obviously is not the cleanest.

BB: Have you got some other project besides of Anachronaeon and Eyecult?

Patrik: No, there is no time for that. But it would be fun to play live once in a while. I miss playing live.

BB: How you balance your work between Eyecult and Anachronaeon?

Patrik: It’s actually two different ways of approaching the music I would say. There’s more melodies in the Anachronaeon sound than in the Eyecult sound. But off course each project colors the other one. That’s inevitable. But there’s still two different worlds in musicwriting. Andreas drums much stricter in Eyecult too. Let’s say that there’s more work to write music for Anachronaeon than for Eyecult.

BB: The Black Metal scene in Sweden has been among the most influential Metal scenes in the world… How this scene influenced the sound of Anachronaeon?

Patrik: I guess it has. I have always loved atmospherical music. A personal favourite is Dissection’s “Storm of the lights bane”, which atmosphere is awesome. It has definately colored the way I perceive black metal, and metal in general.

BB: As Anachronaeon, do you have some specially ideology or belief?

Patrik: Not really. But we don’t like religion as a collective phenomenon. I think it’s okay to believe in what you want, as long as you don’t try to feed my your beliefs. You don’t need an institution to confirm what you believe in. It is when religions gets organised that it is dangerous. Like the election of a new pope. Who cares about that old guy. He stands for segregation, facism, and intolerance, which would be okay if we lived in medieval times. But we live in the year 2005. Wake up people! 

BB: Have you planned to sign with some label in the near future?

Patrik: We haven’t actually sent the cd to any recordlabels, because we know that our music isn’t commercial enought. Because of that thay can’t label us, and if they can’t label us, we cannot sell any cd’s. We are pretty happy by staying underground. Hopefully we can make a name anyways. The important thing for me is that we can satisfy people who like our music without being signed.

But it would be cool to release a cd through a recordcompany some day...

BB: Thanks again for this interview… These last lines are all yours…

Patrik: Thank you! The “As the last human spot in me dies”-cd is available for download in it’s entity at www.anachronaeon.com

Enjoy!